A Day in the Life of a Gymboree Babies Play Class

Becoming a parent is a beautiful journey full of firsts — first smiles, first sounds, first discoveries. At Gymboree Play & Music, we know how important those early moments are for your baby’s growth. Our 45-minute play classes are thoughtfully designed to engage your baby’s senses, foster development, and create joyful connections between you and your little one. Curious about what a typical Gymboree baby class looks like? Let’s take a peek inside!

What Happens in a 45-Minute Gymboree Play Class for Babies?

To be precise, our class isn’t a whole day — it’s a focused 45 minutes. For younger babies, sitting still for that long can be quite challenging! That’s why our Gymboree play class for babies is carefully designed to engage their senses and keep them curious throughout.

We start with a welcome song to stimulate their vision. The tune is the classic Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Vision is the least developed sense when a baby is born. It takes months of exposure to visual stimuli for their visual system to grow and develop. In fact, babies’ vision improves rapidly during their first year, then gradually slows down as they get older.

When babies are exposed to colors, shapes, and patterns, their visual development is faster and stronger. This enhanced vision helps their overall growth — physically, socially, and cognitively — because now they’re able to explore the world around them with curiosity and confidence.

In one of our class activities, we focus on motivating babies’ sense of sight through visually stimulating exercises.

Baby Massage with Gymbo

After circle time, we move on to baby massage. Using Gymbo — our signature clown doll — we demonstrate gentle massage techniques. For example, we lift one leg, stabilize it with one hand, then use the other hand in a “C” shape to circle around the ankle and stroke down the outside of the leg from ankle to hip with gentle pressure. We switch hands and repeat on the inside of the leg, doing this several times for both legs. We follow this with “milking” strokes on the arms, all while singing Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

This massage helps improve circulation in babies’ arms and legs. When muscles relax, they absorb blood, and when they contract, they help pump blood back to the heart. Because their circulatory system isn’t fully developed yet, babies’ hands, feet, and even the top of their head can often feel cold. Massage strokes like Swedish milking help warm these areas by improving blood flow.

Body Light and Visual Tracking

One fun activity we call “Body Light” uses a flashlight to shine a beam on different parts of the baby’s body. This helps develop visual tracking and sensory integration, and we sing This Little Hand of Mine along with it.

Next, we explore tracking a moving beam of light. We shine the flashlight back and forth across different surfaces for the baby to follow. Sometimes we drape a blanket over ourselves and the baby to create a cozy “tent,” shining the beam inside. We also place babies on their tummy and shine the light on the floor in front of them while singing Star Light, Star Bright.

Scarf Play

Scarves are a key part of our playtime. We dangle a scarf within the baby’s field of vision and gently wiggle it side to side — only moving it as far as the baby can track with their eyes or head turns. We sing Did You Ever See a Lassie? but change the lyrics to Did You Ever See a Scarf?

Another favorite is peek-a-boo with scarves. We place a scarf over our heads and then lift or pull it off to play peek-a-boo, keeping eye contact with the baby and making exaggerated facial expressions. We also gently lay scarves over the baby and lift them off to keep the game playful and engaging.

Parachute Time and Gymbo Dance

There are many more activities packed into our 45 minutes, but we always save the last 10 minutes for parachute time.

For the littlest babies, this means the Gymbo Dance — grown-ups hold their babies, stand up, and dance side to side to the Gymbo Song. We move up and down and dance around, enjoying the music together and sharing joyful moments with our babies.

Every moment in our Gymboree play class is designed to support your baby’s development while making learning fun and interactive. From gentle massages to playful activities with lights and scarves, each experience helps your little one reach important milestones. Most importantly, these joyful moments strengthen the special bond between you and your baby, turning learning into a shared adventure. We look forward to welcoming you and your little one to a class full of smiles, movement, and discovery!

This is just one of the baby class topics we explore — there are many more exciting themes and activities covered in our other classes to support your baby’s growth.